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Translators, particularly beginning translation students, often see translation as an art that is understood only by a select few who possess an almost magical knowledge of the craft. These gifted few pass down this knowledge to the initiates of an exclusive group. This belief is often reinforced by the fact that one original source text may yield several translations. Translators have choices and must contemplate several alternatives before choosing the words that will become their final target text, and it is this very selection that is viewed as an artistic process.
Although translation is indeed related to the art of writing,the training of translators “is in reality the training of good writers capable of appropriately expressing a text in the target language.”When translating from English into another language, novice translators already know they are exposed to the possibility of making errors by daring to fulfill their roles as language brokers. Any text to be converted to another language may pose a series of problems while being subject to translation. In most cases,translators are asked to provide an idiomatic translation; that is, producing a text that follows the conventions of the language of the target text and observes a native speaker’s way of expression. There are different types of problems that a translator may face in order to provide a naturally flowing text. These could be of a linguistic, extralinguistic,instrumental, or pragmatic nature.
Translation Problems Linguistic problems are those related to the norms and differences that exist between two languages on several levels: lexical, morphological, syntactic, stylistic, and textual(e.g., cohesion, coherence, thematic progression, text types, and intertextuality). Extralinguistic problems are related to issues concerning thematic,cultural, or encyclopedic matters.
Instrumental problems are caused by difficulty in research. Pragmatic problems are linked to speech acts in the source text, the intention of the author, presuppositions and implicatures, as well as issues resulting from the specifics of the translation assignment, the characteristics of the target audience, and the context in which the translation is carried out.
All of these potential problems can easily lead novice translators (and even experienced ones) astray.Translation Phases and Errors Translation is commonly seen as consisting of two basic phases: the comprehension phase and the reexpression phase.3 In the comprehension phase, the translator establishes the sense and meaning of the source text. In the re-expression phase, the translator finds the appropriate words and expressions so that he or she can reformulate the content of the source text in the target language. It is during this phase that novice translators often commit the most errors. In other words, a great deal of effort goes into making sure everything from the source text has been translated, which involves a lot of checking and rechecking of important terminology.
Errors that can occur during the comprehension phase, such as in correct meaning,misinterpretation, nonsense misinterpretation, nonsense words, and omission, are of absolute importance. Often, however, the reexpression errors, which may be due to tiredness, time constraints, and/or the influence of the source language, are more common and often not given enough importance. They are, Leraning Learning from Translation Errors By Marko Miletich
Novice (as well as expert) translators could benefit from creating a checklist before turning in their translation as a final product.nevertheless, an extremely important part of the final product. As such,novice (as well as expert) translators could benefit from creating a checklist where they ask themselves questions about the text before turning in their final product. There are three types of re-expression errors that could be recognized easily: syntactical,morphological, and punctuation
